Because Army-Navy is better than Michigan-Ohio State, the Triple Option always trumps the Run and Shoot, and college football is most nearly itself when it's played by actual student athletes.

Monday, August 13, 2007

New Depth Chart

As promised, Scott S. and the Sports Information Department have released the post-scrimmage depth chart, and also as expected, their are some changes to discuss.

First and foremost, take a look at the Punter position. Greg Veteto, last year's starter, is behind plebe Kyle Delahooke. This is really surprising because I thought Greg did a decent job last season, and because you rarely, if ever, see a plebe in front of a senior on the chart. Keep in mind Navy punters need not only have a strong leg, but need to be intelligent and athletic to run the kinds of fakes Paul Johnson often uses. Considering Veteto did a good job with executing fakes and roll-out punts last season (no idea if that's the correct terminology) I don't know how comfortable I am seeing him behind Delahooke. Maybe this is just a "send a message" kind of move, but either way I guess we've got to have confidence that the coaching staff has seen something we obviously haven't.

Second big and surprising depth chart move of the day; Shun White earns the "starting" role at slotback. I don't know if this is as big of a deal as it may seem, because we know Zerb, Reggie, and Shun will all be rotating in there anyway, but I'm encouraged to see Shun in this position because it means that his blocking has vastly improved.

Other moves/changes of note. Check out Andy Lark finally getting on the three-deep at nose guard. Very good sign if you ask me...Lots of young guys ascending up the chart of defense, including plebe DB's Wyatt Middleton and Emmett Merchant...Also in the secondary, Greg Thrasher has once again fallen off the radar (third string) which is probably just a "get his attention move," while Ram Vela's fine play in camp has earned him a second string job at corner.

Remember, we're still 18 days away from temple, and a lot can happen from now until then, including (but not limited to) some of these seniors reclaiming jobs.

6 comments:

phelix
said...

How many fake punts did we try last year? I can only think of two, against Rutgers and Army. Two plays shouldn't outweigh a whole season's worth of punting the ball. If Delahooke has the better leg and doesn't take forever to get the kick off, he should get the job. I don't think we did the rugby-style punt all that often either. Just my two cents.

Yes, those were the only two from last season I can think of, I'm still just a little surprised though. I really had no idea Delahooke had that good of a leg, I didn't even know he was competing for the punter's job.

Delahooke has a real strong leg (as either a punter or kicker). However, he is a plebe from a small school in California that doesn't really play anybody so he has not been tested at a very high level of competition.

Yeah, I thought of him as more of a kickoff specialist but he must have done something to impress the staff during this fall session. I'm a Southern Californian and have coached at the high school level. I think I have a pretty good feel for local high school talent here. I am glad that Navy has stepped up its recruiting in this area as there is a huge pool of talent.

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